Daniel Dessinger

Tag: ministry

  • The New Old Model of Evangelism

    Bringing a friend to church as a means of evangelism is dead. It may work in something like 10% of cases. In other words, not often enough to rely upon old wineskins.

    The most impactful evangelism is America is happening when signs and wonders accompany expressions of love.

    People want to love God. The real God. They DON’T want to submit to a God of rules and pressures and guilt and uneventful circumstances. People are drawn to LIFE. Life that oozes the presence and power of God.

    The new old evangelism is everyday people like you and me pulling someone aside in the grocery line or at Starbucks and sharing the secrets of their hearts. It’s healing their diseases. It’s getting a word of knowledge for the telemarketer you used to hang up on.

    Ministry isn’t something you do every second of the day while living off someone else’s salary and generosity. It’s taking those fleeting moments of opportunity seriously and taking a single risk… over and over and over again.

  • Does Social Networking Keep Prophets From Honor?

    Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”

    Does social networking have the same effect on ministers? Will we begin to see fewer miracles everywhere we go because they know we watched LOST and enjoyed that brownie sundae at Applebees? I think we tend to believe that visitors may have a stronger connection to God or stronger gift of faith than we do. But if we were to follow them on Facebook and Twitter, would we lose that ability to esteem them as highly?

    Bill Johnson would argue that every family and church needs to intentionally cultivate a culture of honor, wherein we choose to not take our loved ones and lifelong acquaintances for granted. Bill says that by doing so, we often shut off a God-ordained source of life, healing, and comfort for ourselves. They’re around us for a reason, but we tend to take for granted those whom we know best.

    And I’m not really asking whose fault it is. Should ANY of us share as much information as we sometimes do? And should we REALLY assume a person isn’t anointed because they watched the Cowboys game on the big screen at Buffalo Wild Wings while scarfing down a ten pack of garlic parmesan?

    This really isn’t just about prophets. Imagine anyone with a revelatory, healing, or miraculous gift. Familiarity breeds contempt. How difficult a road will a guy like Todd Bentley have? Do you feel less likely to be healed by someone who tells you when they’re watching professional wrestling? Does that kind of information work in his favor?

  • Call Forth the Pastors of Online Ministry

    It is time to call forth social media pastors, healers, and evangelists!

    Have you noticed that the larger churches have made some serious upgrades to their website in 2009? Churches now have Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages, and blogs. Their members who are getting it done in the workplace are stepping up and bringing their local churches kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

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